GRGR(9) Pointsman/Slothrop

[ckaratnytsky at nypl.org]

     1) `habitually blank' (136.39) Why are these words italicised? Oh,
     and whose are they by the way?
     
     I disagree here, Paul, with your assessment that these words 
     are italicised "only for mild emphasis."  I think the italics are a 
     red light -- the kind that we have seen in use since 
     Pirate's opening dream.  (I'm kind of stuck on this, I know.)  Our 
     omniscient narrator seems to be stepping in once again to signal to us 
     that the term itself and what follows require particular attention.
     
     To me, this near-ironic use of a Pavlovian concept -- habit, I mean, 
     or what is perceived as habit, through conditioning (this *is* a 
     Pavlovian concept, is it not?) -- draws attention to the dominant 
     character and topics of the section.  We are currently inhabiting the 
     dream and, later, the inner mind of Pavlovian Pointsman, yes?, so 
     terms like "predictable" and "constant" have a layered effect, in that 
     their scientific as well as their everyday meanings are being invoked. 
     
     I guess the point is to further illustrate (along with the narrative 
     -- the story related here is of Pointsman's "should haves," ain't it?) 
     the completeness of his immersion in the scientific world (as 
     these phrases, second nature now, come so naturally) and of his 
     removal or remoteness from the, what, real world, the world of 
     experience, the world of love?
     
     I think the dream stuff here is dead-on tied to Pirate's/Slothrop's 
     dream:  "More than an 'event'... our common mortality...these tragic 
     days..."  Pynchon rocks the house with this subtle interrelations and 
     dreamer Chris finds it very exciting.
     
     11) `Even if the American's not legally a murderer he is sick' (144.7) 
     Boy! that's rich!
     
     I'm reading this as Pointsman's view that Slothrop is to be blamed for 
     the death of Kevin Spectro, who got caught in one of the bombings.  He 
     (Pointsman) feels that he (Slothrop) is responsible for the *all* of 
     the bombings.  Is this what you're getting at, Andrew?
     
     12) `We must never lose control' (144.36) Double boy! He continues 
     `The thought of him lost in the world of men, after the war, fills me 
     with a deep dread I cannot extinguish [...]'. These lines are really 
     scary. Pointsman recognises that he appears `creepy' to others but 
     only as a physical thing. But this is the mental creeps of a higher 
     order which, of course, he cannot recognise.
     
     Yes, it becomes a little clearer for me here, maybe:  Pointsman 
     (misguidedly?) thinks Slothrop "a monster," whereas he fails to 
     recognize the horror of his own monstrousness, yes?  But I'm not sure 
     I understand what his monstrousness is.  The "should haves?"  The 
     experiments?  The destructive self-delusions?  This is what you mean 
     by "mental creeps," Andrew, yes?
     
     That Chris